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ICU Patient Heard 5 to 6 Shots During NH Hospital Shooting

A man is in custody after allegedly shooting and killing his mother at New Hampshire's largest hospital on Tuesday afternoon. According to New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald, 49-year-old Travis Frink of Warwick, Rhode Island, shot and killed his 70-year-old mother, Pamela Ferriere, while she was in the intensive care unit.

(Published Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017)

A man is in custody after allegedly shooting and killing his mother at New Hampshire's largest hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

According to New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald, 49-year-old Travis Frink of Warwick, Rhode Island, shot and killed his 70-year-old mother, Pamela Ferriere, while she was in the intensive care unit.

"Facts gathered to this point reveal that the purpose of Mr. Frink's visit to the hospital today was to kill his mother," MacDonald said Tuesday night.

MacDonald said Frink signed in at the visitors desk at 1:15 p.m., and within nine minutes, police had received a 911 call that shots had been fired at the hospital.

Silas Baker, who was in the ICU recovering from brain surgery at the time of the shooting, said he heard five or six shots and was absolutely terrified. He said he didn't know when the shooter was going to stop.

Frink was caught by Lebanon and Canaan police as he tried to leave hospital property, MacDonald says.

Federal, state and local law enforcement officials all responded to the shooting around 2 p.m. Tuesday. Lebanon police, special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Boston office and representatives of the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, including state police, are expected to remain at the scene until at least 10 p.m.

Calling the incident "tragic," Dartmouth-Hitchcock chief legal officer John Kacavas said the hospital's medical teams are trying to make sure there is "as little interruption to patient care as possible."

A silver SUV at the entrance of the hospital's campus was surrounded by police after the hospital was locked down following the reports of an active shooter. Although law enforcement officials have not confirmed whether the car was connected to the incident, Rhode Island State Police confirmed to local NBC affiliate WJAR that the SUV belongs to the suspect after authorities contacted them regarding the vehicle's Rhode Island license plates.

Police had been looking for a man described as 6'1" tall, with salt and pepper blonde hair, wearing a red camouflage shirt and possibly carrying a camouflage backpack in connection to the incident, according to Dartmouth College in neighboring Hanover.

Dartmouth College said its Hanover campus was not on lockdown and classes were going on as scheduled.

Lora Charbonneau said she and her husband, who is a police officer, were on their way to Dartmouth-Hitchcock to see his mother when they got a call about an active shooter and lockdown at the hospital.

"We got here as quick as we could and obviously we couldn't go any further," she said. "My husband being the wonderful officer he is, obviously, jumped right out and volunteered to do whatever he could, so he's out there directing traffic."